Putin to Ukraine: Russia has barely started its action

Moscow: With Russia's military action in Ukraine in its fifth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscow's terms or brace for the worst, adding ominously that Russia has barely started its action.

Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the Kremlin-controlled parliament, Putin accused Western allies of fuelling the hostilities, charging that "the West wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian.

It's a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it looks like it's heading in that direction, he added. Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven't even yet started anything in earnest, Putin said in a menacing note.

He declared that Russia remains ready to sit down for talks to end the fighting, adding that those who refuse to do so should know that the longer it lasts the more difficult it will be for them to make a deal with us.

We are hearing that they want to defeat us on the battlefield, Putin said. Let them try.

Earlier in the conflict, the Kremlin demanded that Kyiv acknowledge Russian sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and recognize the independence of Moscow-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. Moscow also said it expected Ukraine to bow to the existing situation on the ground, a reference to other land gains it has made since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

After failing to capture Kyiv and other big cities in Ukraine's northeast early in the campaign, the Russian military shifted its focus to the eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops

since 2014.